
As printed in the OC Register / Saddleback Valley News
Written by Jim E. Flynn, Century 21 Beachside Realtors, Lake Mission
Viejo
Oct. 30, 2009
Question Results in Offer for Ocean View
Laguna Property
Q. Catherine from Mission Viejo asked: Are there any good medium priced Ocean
View properties left in Laguna Beach? We have a property insurance settlement from a
second home that burned in Lake Arrowhead and are interested in Ocean View property?
A. Yes, there certainly are Catherine and I am sending you several possible properties
with color photos attached for you to review between Dana Point and Newport Beach .
After reviewing several properties we scheduled a preview tour for this past Friday
morning. One of the six properties was taken off the market by the owner that same morning
that we were scheduled to see it. We picked up Steve and Catherine at their Lake Mission
Viejo home and on the way to Laguna while I paid attention to driving , my Broker Associate
Mike answered both Steve and Catherine's questions about the differences between
foreclosures, REO properties and Bank owned Properties. They had very good questions and we
both joined in the informative discussion as we arrived at our first Laguna property to
preview. WOW! The view of the Ocean was magnificent. At the second property, the Listing
Agent called me and advised that it looked like they were not able to show the property
since there was a possible pending offer and we could only see it from the outside When we
arrived, our clients Catherine and Steve got out of the car and were looking at the property
and I was on the phone to the listing agent. She cautioned us not to bother the owner since
we did not have an appointment . While I was assuring her we would not knock on the door and
bother her client guess what ?.. the owner invited our clients Steve ,Catherine and Mike to
come inside an see her home while I was on the phone. I finished my conversation with the
Listing agent and joined them inside. After a thorough inspection which included pro an con
notes we moved on to see the 5 remaining properties .and Steve and Catherine had good
questions about each of them .Each had Ocean views ranking from acceptable to magnificent
with commensurate pricing.
Finishing mid-afternoon we headed for the Lake Forest Olive Garden to review and discuss
their notes and add our input over some great Chicken Caesar Salads.
The lunch concluded with a decision by Catherine and Steve and they asked us to write an
over asking price offer on the 2nd. property we previewed, where the nice owner had invited
us in without an appointment. We dropped them back at their lovely Mission Viejo Lake home
and we went to our Century 21 Beachside office and wrote their offer. They called their
Lender and she faxed us a copy of a PRE-Approval letter outlining their qualifications .We
drove back to their home and got them to initial and sign the over asking price offer picked
up their substantial deposit check and returned to our office. The next step was to Fax the
signed offer along with the pre-approved lender letter, copy of their Deposit check and two
substantiating bank statements indicting proof of funds. To the listing agent. I then called
the listing agent who was unavailable but left her a detailed message that we had faxed her
our client offer realizing that she may have an accepted offer but to please acknowledge
receipt of our faxed offer. Arriving home in time to catch the last inning of the defeat by
the angels I got a cell phone call. It was the Listing agent with Good News… the offer had
fell through and our clients offer would be processed Monday. So, the old adage If you
don’t aim you probably will not hit anything remains true. We keep aiming!
Jim is a award winning Realtor with Century 21 Beachside on Lake Mission.
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